Opinions

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“The Deceased Can’t Speak for Herself:” Violence Against LGBT People in Malaysia

The New Year rang in little cheer for transgender women in Malaysia. On January 1, a trans woman was killed in Klang, a Kuala Lumpur suburb, the third such killing in Malaysia in fewer than two months. Her death remains under police investigation. Like so many trans women in Malaysia excluded from the formal employment sector, this woman was a sex worker. She died falling—or was possibly thrown—from a moving vehicle. The driver, presumably her client, was arrested in connection with the death. He told police she jumped from the car after stealing his mobile phone. Trans sex workers in Klang, however, are convinced she was murdered.

Just three weeks earlier, also in Klang, another trans sex worker was beaten to death. While police have opened investigations into both cases, they hastily determined that the killings were not hate crimes. Rights advocates are skeptical, but as one trans activist put it, “the deceased can’t speak for herself.”

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Malaysia face violence from both state authorities and civilian actors. In September 2018, a Sharia court sentenced two women to caning for purportedly attempting to engage in homosexual relations. State religious officials and police officers have also physically and sexually assaulted transgender women arrested during raids to enforce Sharia laws that prohibit “a male posing as a female.”

Several Malaysian trans women have reported abusive arrests have diminished since an appeals court struck down as unconstitutional a state “cross-dressing” law in 2014. Malaysia’s highest court overturned the ruling on a technicality, but trans women say advocacy and awareness-raising have restrained officials. Now, trans women primarily fear violence from ordinary people: clients, partners, or strangers, including vigilante groups seeking to rid the streets of trans women. But even when state agents are not the culprits of violence, they bear responsibility for propagating discriminatory beliefs that may lead to hate crimes and for failing to denounce violence when it takes place.

Malaysia held a historic election in May 2018, in which the United Malay National Organization (UMNO) party, in power since independence in 1957, was massively defeated. Fed up with abuses of power, voters cast their ballots for change. The new coalition government, led by the Pakatan Harapan party, has delivered to a certain extent, dropping politically motivated charges against many activists and investigating corrupt officials. Yet, it has pointedly refused to embrace LGBT equality. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has described “LGBT” as among “things we cannot accept,” while Pakatan Harapan leader Anwar Ibrahim has called for mobilization against “LGBT tendencies and their ideas.” Furthermore, the deputy home minister has condemned LGBT “culture,” and religious affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa has promoted the scientifically discredited idea that LGBT people should and could “change” their sexual orientation or gender identity and return to the “right path.” 

Malaysia’s federal penal code, which dates back to British colonialism, punishes “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” with up to twenty years in prison. The country’s thirteen states and federal territories each have their own Sharia criminal enactment, applicable to Muslims. Almost all such state laws prohibit same-sex relations. They also prohibit “posing” as someone of a different sex, making Malaysia one of the few countries in the world that locks people up simply for being transgender. 

When religious authorities in Terengganu state, which is run by the opposition Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), caned two women for lesbian acts, some ruling party officials voiced objections regarding the nature of the punishment, and PH leader Anwar Ibrahim suggested that same-sex relations should be decriminalized. Anwar should know: as the most famous casualty of Malaysia’s “unnatural offenses” law, he was twice imprisoned between 1999 and 2018 on politically-motivated sodomy charges. However, his party has taken no steps toward decriminalizing sodomy, nor toward persuading states to repeal anti-LGBT provisions in their Sharia enactments. 

Instead, the current administration continues its predecessor’s anti-LGBT policies, focusing on “rehabilitation” and prohibition of so-called “promotion of LGBT culture” (any form of LGBT visibility), while maintaining the threat of sanction through state and federal laws. The ethnically and religiously diverse Pakatan Harapan coalition appears determined to legitimize its Islamic credentials to bolster support among Malay Muslims, many of whom voted in favor of the long-ruling UMNO party or Islamist opposition parties in 2018. This battle for the Malay heartland, presumed to be socially and religiously conservative, causes politicians from across the political spectrum to emphatically adopt anti-LGBT positions. Activists argue that Pakatan Harapan’s unwillingness to ally itself with LGBT people’s struggle for equal rights and its silence in the face of hate crimes renders it complicit in those crimes, and that jockeying by politicians to avoid being seen as pro-LGBT fuels hate.  One clear battleground is online. Multiple LGBT people and rights activists have reported a spike in anti-LGBT hate speech on the Internet since the elections. In August, one trans-led group filed a police complaint about social media posts promoting anti-LGBT violence. Six months later, they had still not received a response

In this context, when eight men in Seremban assaulted a trans woman known as Suki in August 2018, beating her so severely that doctors had to remove her spleen, police who interviewed her in the hospital asked her why she thought she had been attacked. She responded with outrage: “They’re in the police station. Shouldn’t you be asking them instead of me?” In December, attackers pulled two men from a car in Kuala Lumpur and beat them for allegedly engaging in same-sex intimacy, then circulated a video of the assault on social media.

Police have made arrests in some of the recent hate-crimes cases. Two killings from 2017—one of a trans woman named Sameera Krishnan, stabbed and shot to death in Kuantan, and another of 18-year-old student T. Nhaveen in Penang, beaten to death by high school classmates who had bullied him for being “effeminate”—have resulted in ongoing prosecutions. Yet, when police refuse to acknowledge that acts of violence might be bias-motivated crimes, as they have with the killings of trans women in Klang, and when the authorities fail to condemn attacks, LGBT people are left feeling that the state does not support them. Even if perpetrators are brought to justice, a strictly punitive approach without a prevention strategy or meaningful change in political leaders’ approach to LGBT rights are all unlikely to stem the violence. A punitive approach also raises its own human rights concerns; a murder conviction, for instance, carries the death penalty in Malaysia. Many of the alleged assailants in these cases are young people who have been molded by societal and state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia. As long as authorities shut down positive portrayals of LGBT people while promoting a harmful “change” narrative, school textbooks portray LGBT people as deviant, and Malaysian law considers them criminals, impressionable young Malaysians may choose to take the law into their own hands.

Pakatan Harapan’s campaign manifesto promised to “make [Malaysia’s] human rights record respected by the world.” Malaysia must prioritize the right to life and the right to be free from violence—rights which currently elude many LGBT people. If Malaysia’s government wishes to address anti-LGBT violence, it must condemn the attacks and recognize that many of them are hate crimes. It should roll out a multi-pronged prevention plan, to include promoting public discussion of LGBT rights, removing harmful stereotypes from textbooks, discontinuing anti-LGBT state programs, and initiating legal reforms to advance LGBT equality. The police should undergo training in recognizing and investigating anti-LGBT hate crimes. Denial may be politically expedient, but lives are at stake. The deceased demand to be heard.

*Thilaga Sulathireh is with Justice for Sisters, an advocacy group working on human rights of trans and LGBTIQ+ persons in Malaysia.

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Success 50 Years After Stonewall

Though old enough to have had firsthand knowledge of Stonewall (I was 22 when the riots occurred) my understanding of Stonewall came from hearing about it from friends and reading about it many years later. Though I grew up in upper Manhattan, anything having to do with gay life was something out of my experience. 

When the Stonewall Riots began on June 28, 1969, I had just graduated from college and was on my way across the country. I was living a deeply closeted life. Even after going to work for gay rights advocate Bella S. Abzug (D-N.Y.) in 1972 it would be nearly 12 more years until I came out. So it was much later that I learned how much I owed those who took part in the riots and how the repercussions were to impact my life. 

When I did come out in the early 1980s, I met and got to know Frank Kameny learning he demonstrated for gay rights before Stonewall. A little research confirmed that with a few others Kameny led a picket line protesting government treatment of gays and lesbians in front of the White House on April 17, 1965 — four years before Stonewall. 

After coming out, I joined the fight for equality for the LGBTQ+ movement meeting many who were there before me to whom I owed much. Our community must recognize the very fast pace of change that has occurred for us compared to other minority groups and women. Until the Trump administration things were going at lightning speed for our equality movement compared to the hundreds of years it took for African Americans and knowing women still can’t get the Equal Rights Amendment passed by states that was first introduced in Congress in 1923. So while some think things have moved slowly, I hope when Democrats once again take the Senate and the presidency we will be able to pass the Equality Act first introduced in Congress by Bella in 1974. 

We have gained recognition by society in some ways just as important if not more so than legislation. We have gained the right to marry even though in 37 states we can marry on Sunday and be fired from our jobs or thrown out of our homes on Monday. 

I think the debate in our community as represented by the two competing parades being held in New York to celebrate 50 years since Stonewall are in some ways emblematic of our success. This year there is a counter march to the New York Pride parade called the “Reclaim Pride” march honoring Stonewall. It is a back-to-basics march without any outside participation from the corporate or government communities. While I can respect the views of the leaders of this march and wish them success, I think our success has been that government and the corporate communities want to march with us. 

To me a celebration of those who took part in Stonewall and others like Kameny would include corporate floats, the police and military in uniform. We fought for broad-based acceptance and recognition for members of our community. Why is it a bad thing if a corporation is proud to have its gay employees march openly under their banner in a pride parade? Why should we not celebrate police departments proud to have their LGBTQ members and other officers who support them march openly? Then there is the military who some object to having participate. We fought long and hard to have members of the LGBTQ community be able to serve openly in the military. Why would we now not want them to march proudly in the uniforms they worked so long and hard to wear? 

I am not blind to how far we have to go. There is discrimination in our society, even in our own community, especially toward people of color and women. We must demand our police be appropriately trained and diversify. We must rid police departments of those who allow their racial biases to influence their actions. 

We honor those who were at Stonewall when we let corporations celebrate with us after 50 years of our activists fighting for this to happen. 

When we needed help fighting anti-gay laws in North Carolina and Indiana among other places the business community stood with us. Those of us who are out need to live our pride every day of the year. We need to urge more and more people to come out and it’s so much easier if they know their neighbors and their employers say “you are welcome here and we support you.” We honor Stonewall when we are inclusive.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

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Social Media a Blessing and Curse for LGBTI Community

Twitter getting you down? Fed up with Facebook? Irate with Insta? You’re not the only one who thinks social media can be a real pain.

One leading expert says social media has changed what it means to be a young person struggling with sexual identity.

Best selling author, philosopher and historian, Yuval Noah Harari, has been talking about this very modern issue the first National Conference for Israel’s LGBTI Community, on Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

The conference comes ahead of the Middle East’s largest gay pride parade in the city this Friday.

Harari noted that social media can be an essential lifeline for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people who live outside of liberal bubbles like Tel Aviv, the Times of Israel reported.

Dark Side

But the bestselling author of Sapiens warned there is also a dark side to social media. He said it can be used for government surveillance, manipulation, and control.

‘All of the online world has done some wonderful things, like enabling people who have no immediate community to be part of something,’ Harari said after the panel session with musician Ivri Lider and journalist Ilana Dayan.

‘When I grew up [in Kiryat Ata, near Haifa], there was nowhere I could go, no one I could meet.’

Harari, met his husband of 17 years on one of the first gay online dating websites, called CheckMeOut. This was a long-defunct website that predated the popular gay meet-up app Grindr, the paper said.

Fight for gay rights different

The fight for gay rights is different from other social struggles, such as black activists fighting against racism, Harari said.

Because LGBT people are usually not born into gay families, they must first overcome a sense of isolation, Harari said. They also must make a community for themselves and win family support, before joining the public struggle.

Social media helps diminish this isolation by providing a tool for people on their personal journeys to start reaching out and finding allies and like-minded people, he said.

But using technology to build these bridges also has a dark side.

“[Social media and the internet] also means that LGBTI people are extremely vulnerable to surveillance and abuse,” Harari said.

‘I just read an article about Christian fundamentalist groups who are targeting LGBTI teenagers with advertisements for conversion therapies, which basically play on their insecurities.

‘They target people using the Facebook algorithm, so you don’t even have to identify as gay, it’s enough if you clicked on some gay related news issues or stories and they target you.’

Life threatening impact

Beyond manipulative advertising, social media surveillance of LGBT people can also be life threatening, the Times reported.

‘In Egypt, there was a case where the police used Grindr to arrest people’, Harari said.

‘You have more and more regimes today around the world which target LGBT people. With the new technologies coming along, the danger is that as the political climate worsens, there is no way you can even hide.’

‘The option that once existed, to hide yourself in the closet, had some terrible consequences, because it meant that people did not fight against the oppressive system, but at least it was a survival mechanism on a personal level,’ Harari added.

‘In the future, there might not be any option of going back to the closet because the technology makes the closet completely transparent.’

Tel Aviv is in the midst of its 2019 Pride Week celebrations. This Friday’s parade is expected to attracted 200,000 people, the Times said.

Friday’s march will wind through the streets and on to a beach and party, complete with party floats and DJs.

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Trump Admin Says Pride Flags Can’t Fly above U.S. Embassies, Sending a Clear Message to the World

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U.S. embassies and consulates around the world aren’t allowed to raise LGBTQ pride flags on their flagpoles this month, the result of a policy change from the Trump administration. This decision, while perhaps not surprising given Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s stance on LGBTQ equality, sends exactly the wrong message about America at a time when the world is already questioning our moral and political leadership.

In countries struggling with discrimination and oppression, a U.S. embassy is seen as a beacon — not of perfection, but of the continuing fight toward greater equality and opportunity. That shouldn’t stop in June, when countries around the world come together to celebrate the LGBTQ community and remember the advocates who fought and continue to fight for equality. Prior to joining NBC, I was a civil servant at the State Department and in 2016, when posted in Frankfurt, Germany, I was responsible for raising the pride flag in front of the consulate during Pride Month.

In countries struggling with discrimination and oppression, a U.S. embassy is seen as a beacon — not of perfection, but of the continuing fight toward greater equality and opportunity.

Earlier that summer, in the days after the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, several German towns planned vigils to honor the victims, and I attended as a symbol of gratitude for their solidarity. Together, we pledged that Germany and America would always fight back against the hatred that fueled the attack. A month later, raising the flag at the consulate was a continuation of that message.

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United States embassies have been flying the distinctive rainbow flags and engaging in Pride activities for years, but Washington didn’t dictate how it should be done. As with almost all public outreach abroad, experienced American diplomats and staff from the host country determine how to best convey our policies and values in a way that will resonate with communities in that country. They do this knowing that public support from the U.S. embassy can often move the needle on many issues overseas.

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In other words, when an embassy makes the decision to raise the pride flag, it’s because the diplomats posted there believe doing so could have a genuine impact on the LGBTQ dialogue in their host country. The opposite is also true: A decision to stop flying the flag, after years of doing so, sends a clear and troubling signal to local communities. I trust our diplomats to know what’s best. And I would hope State Department officials in Washington would allow them to do their jobs.

Josh Lederman✔@JoshNBCNews

JUST IN: @StateDept confirms our @NBCNews exclusive on US barring embassies from flying #pride flag on flagpoles. Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus just now:
“The secretary has the position that as it relates to the flagpole that only the American flag should be flown there.”3191:06 PM – Jun 10, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy329 people are talking about this

As NBC News first reported, although the embassies can’t raise pride flags on their flagpoles, they can still be hung in other places — on the building’s walls or inside. But diplomacy is all about symbolism and messaging, and no longer allowing pride flags on the U.S. flagpoles is sending the world the wrong message about our values.View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Charlotte Clymer✔@cmclymer

It feels like the British Embassy is giving the biggest middle finger to Trump this weekend. #Pride http://bit.ly/2XyuPyl 7691:56 PM – Jun 8, 2019111 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

In some countries, American diplomats are able to engage freely and actively in the local community. In others, our embassies are surrounded by tall walls, and security concerns severely limit what diplomats can do and where they can go. Yet in all of these countries, even above the walls, the U.S. flag is instantly recognizable for the many things it stands for. When the pride flag appears below it, the message of American values and LGBTQ tolerance are unmistakably intertwined.

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In Trump’s tweets to honor Pride, he said we must “stand in solidarity with the many LGBTQ people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals…on the basis of their sexual orientation.” What better way to stand with people in those countries than by visibly showing it at our embassies? Not all American ideals can be clearly communicated in a flag. But when we have one that works — and that’s been working for years — why not use it?

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals….140K12:12 PM – May 31, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy73.1K people are talking about this

The U.S. is not an equal society, and it has a long way to go before it can truly call itself one. But one of the things that sets us apart from other countries is our ability and willingness to have hard conversations when we need to — conversations that honor how far we’ve come, while talking openly about what we still have yet to do. LGBTQ equality is a perfect example of this ongoing process, and even the pride flag itself is symbolic of the LGBTQ community’s continuing need to be more inclusive of people of color.

The U.S. evolution on LGBTQ equality is rocky and ongoing, but our discussion of it is also honest. We have the potential to lead many countries by example — but only if we continue our tradition of starting the conversation. Embassies should be allowed to use the position of American leadership for good. They should be able to raise the pride flag.

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President Trump Must Honor 50th Anniversary of Stonewall Riots, LGBTQ Movement

GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today called on President Donald Trump and his administration to honor the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots by declaring June as National Pride Month. The riots at the Stonewall Inn back on June 28,1969 sparked the creation of the LGBTQ movement and the beginning fight toward LGBTQ acceptance across the nation.

“In just fifty years, LGBTQ Americans have become indispensable to the United States of America thanks to the hard work of countless LGBTQ leaders who bravely called out injustice and hate. Yet, as LGBTQ acceptance around the U.S. spreads, President Trump has made anti-LGBTQ actions his hallmark and only addresses the community when it serves his political gain,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “If the President truly believes in his administration’s campaigns to end global LGBTQ criminalization and stop HIV transmissions by 2030, then he should recognize those LGBTQ Americans who fought and died for these ideas to even be possible during Pride month and throughout the year.”

A statement from the White House would support the administration’s two policy campaigns announced earlier this year. In January, President Trump released a plan to end HIV transmissions by 2030, and this spring, U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell announced a promise by the Trump Administration to help decriminalize being LGBTQ across the globe. Further, news reports found that the 2020 Trump Campaign began selling “LGBTQ for Trump” t-shirts ahead of Pride Month.

However, LGBTQ acceptance has been threatened by the most anti-LGBTQ government in recent memory, the Trump Administration. Not only has President Trump failed to recognize June as National Pride Month since becoming president, but his administration has issued more than 110 attacks on the LGBTQ community since the beginning of 2017. This includes the President’s ban on allowing transgender servicemembers from serving in the nation’s armed forces and opposition to the Equality Act, a bill which would provide across-the-board protections for LGBTQ Americans at home, at work, and in their communities.

The entire list of the Trump Administration’s anti-LGBTQ actions can be found by going to GLAAD’s Trump Accountability Project.

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George Clooney: Boycott Sultan Of Brunei’s Hotels Over Cruel Anti-Gay Laws

The date April 3rd has held a unique place in our history over the years. Theologians and astronomers will tell you that Christ was crucified on that date. On April 3rd Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan, arguably the greatest postwar intervention in the history of man. The first portable cellphone call was made on April 3rd. Marlon Brando was born on that day.

But this April 3rd will hold its own place in history. On this particular April 3rd the nation of Brunei will begin stoning and whipping to death any of its citizens that are proved to be gay. Let that sink in. In the onslaught of news where we see the world backsliding into authoritarianism this stands alone.

Brunei isn’t a significant country. Its population is less than 500,000 people, pretty small in relation to most of its neighbors, The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia. But Brunei has oil. This year it was ranked as the 5th richest nation by Forbes. Good for them. Of course they haven’t had an election since 1962 and have adopted the most extreme version of Sharia law so, not so good for them. At the head of it all is the Sultan of Brunei who is one of the richest men in the world. The Big Kahuna. He owns the Brunei Investment Agency and they in turn own some pretty spectacular hotels.

A couple of years ago two of those hotels in Los Angeles, The Bel-Air and The Beverly Hills Hotel were boycotted by many of us for Brunei’s treatment of the gay community. It was effective to a point. We cancelled a big fundraiser for the Motion Picture Retirement Home that we’d hosted at the Beverly Hills Hotel for years. Lots of individuals and companies did the same. But like all good intentions when the white heat of outrage moves on to the hundred other reasons to be outraged, the focus dies down and slowly these hotels get back to the business of business. And the Brunei Investment Agency counts on that. They own nine of the most exclusive hotels in the world. Full disclosure: I’ve stayed at many of them, a couple of them recently, because I hadn’t done my homework and didn’t know who owned them.

They’re nice hotels. The people who work there are kind and helpful and have no part in the ownership of these properties. But let’s be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery. Brunei is a Monarchy and certainly any boycott would have little effect on changing these laws. But are we really going to help pay for these human rights violations? Are we really going to help fund the murder of innocent citizens? I’ve learned over years of dealing with murderous regimes that you can’t shame them. But you can shame the banks, the financiers and the institutions that do business with them and choose to look the other way.

Below I’ve listed the nine hotels. It’s up to each of us what we want to do.

George Clooney

The Dorchester, London
45 Park Lane, London
Coworth Park, UK
The Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills
Hotel Bel-Air, Los Angeles
Le Meurice, Paris
Hotel Plaza Athenee, Paris
Hotel Eden, Rome
Hotel Principe di Savoia, Milan

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An Impressive Democratic Field Emerges

The Democratic field of contenders continues to grow and I am impressed by the wide range of talent in the party. On Nov. 7, 2018 I wrote that Democrats need a coherent message and younger candidates to win in 2020. My thought was there should be no one over 70 on the ticket. I stand by that today.

Over the past two years many said they fear there isn’t a strong bench in the Democratic Party. To my thinking they have been proven wrong. All we need do is look at the array of candidates who have already announced they will enter the Democratic primary including Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Gov. Jay Inslee to name just a few. They represent a diverse set of backgrounds; there are women, minorities and even a gay candidate. What they all have in common is they are smart and looking to serve to ensure more equal opportunity for all Americans. 

While they speak of a better future they have differing ideas on how we get there. They speak to the American voter in different ways and over the year we will see what resonates with those voters. They all recognize Trump and his policies are anathema to the future of America they believe in. They would all be wise to remember Barack Obama was elected on the slogan of  hope and change, and try to reignite the feeling of hope in the voters that things can get better.  

As an older American myself I feel comfortable calling on the elders in the Democratic Party to realize we are at a crossroads in our country. Millennials and young people are going to be the biggest voting bloc in the nation. Like each new generation they think and view the world differently than we do. They may like the programs we elders rely on like Medicare and Social Security but may not feel they will be there for them. They also realize they will be paying into those programs to support us elders for many years. They legitimately will question the party if we continue to put up candidates who can be their grandparents or in many cases their great grandparents. 

I remember my excitement in 1960 as a 13 year old supporting John F. Kennedy. He was young, vibrant and someone I could connect with. Democrats win with younger vibrant candidates such as Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Obama. In 2018 we elected a host of younger candidates to Congress. 

I am not suggesting those over 70 don’t have a role in the party — they do and an important one. They have worked hard to move us forward and in doing so gained their experience and wisdom. Sharing that with the next generation of leaders is important. We also want to know the next generation we elect recognizes that wisdom and experience and understands there are so many roles from issue advisers, to White House advisers, to cabinet secretaries they can fill. President Obama recognized he needed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and chose Joe Biden as his vice president, both having years more experience than he did.   

Today, the youngest of the announced candidates is Peter Buttigieg at 37. Clearly if he were to be elected he would need the elders of the party to share their knowledge and wisdom. The same for the broad, diverse spectrum of other candidates like Harris, O’Rourke, Klobuchar, and Booker. I would think those elders would make the same decision Hillary Clinton has made and realize the time has come for them to step off center stage.  

I have seen columns attacking each of our candidates as they announce. Bringing up all their problems and making it clear we have no perfect candidate. But then there is no perfect voter. We each have our foibles and have each done things in our lives we would rather not have done or said. Attacking someone for being a cis white male of privilege makes little sense. He had no more choice in being born that way than someone of color or a member of the LGBTQ+ community. The focus should be on what you do with that privilege.

The diversity of our candidates is exciting. I hope Democrats end up with a woman on the ticket. There are a number of qualified women running. Each of our candidates will have their chance to make their pitch to the primary electorate in the next year before the first primary. We should listen to them all carefully as they make their case. I will also try to think about how they will be able to make their case to the general electorate, which is different from the Democratic primary voter. For the good of the nation and the world we must defeat Trump and reclaim our government. 

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBT rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade. 

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Will We Ever Have a Gay President?

And I know what some of you are thinking? We had James Buchanan. The guy just before Lincoln who kind of tapped out of the whole thing right before the Civil War, the one who Andrew Jackson referred to him and the man he lived with as “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy”. He’s generally regarded as our worst president, Buchanan that is. So, let’s not rush to name any LGBT centers after him. 

Fast forward to last month, when 37-year old, and sadly taken, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg threw his hat into the ring of Democratic contenders to take on Trump. On paper Buttigieg has it all — a degree from Harvard, he’s a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran, a last name school children will ruthlessly mock for a generation. But will it ultimately be Buttigieg? Probably not. It’s a crowded field. And his last name is just. . .not what we need right now. But it’s interesting to me that his candidacy isn’t bigger news. Maybe the whole ‘the first openly gay person to. . .’ just isn’t that big of a deal anymore? 

And while I think most of us agree that it won’t be Buttigieg, it seems generally agreed that one day we will have a gay president. An informal poll on my facebook page saw that a majority of folks out there, almost four out of five, believe that one day we will have one of ours sitting in the Oval Office. 

Two things sort of point to this inevitability. First, let’s look to Colorado. That state, one I would consider by no means reliably blue in its political make-up, elected their first openly gay governor, Jared Polis. I’m guessing if you asked Coloradans just ten years ago if that were possible in their state, the majority would have said no. Asked then if they would like Polis to be governor, I’m sure the majority would have asked if there was anyone else available. But besides Polis, there’s Oregon’s Kate Brown and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both winning state-state-wide elections recently. I mean, it will take a while for say, Mississippi, to elect a LGBT politician, but when have we ever held our breath for states like that to do the right thing anyway?

Beyond what Colorado has shown us, it seems that liberal ideas over time just ultimately win out. And it’s not just that they win, people come around on them, from seemingly very little support to outright majorities in the span of a generation. Two of these — marijuana, and gay marriage — seem to be the best examples here. Then you have non-political, just general queer visibility in America; queer entertainment like Drag Race is now practically mainstream. Buttigieg himself remarked on this trend. Telling reporters at one of his Washington events that “when I came out, Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana, when I joined the military, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was the law of the land, and when it first crossed my mind that I might run for office someday, I believed that coming out would be a career death sentence.” Coming out certainly hasn’t been a death sentence for him. But, it some ways, it wasn’t the headline grabber it once was either. 

Americans can move surprisingly fast on social issues, especially it seems on LGBT issues. And if we carry on at this rate, a gay man in the White House is not just a question to kick around on social media, but an inevitability for sure. 

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Will We Ever Have a Gay President?

President James Buchanan (Portait by George Peter Alexander Healy)

And I know what some of you are thinking? We had James Buchanan. The guy just before Lincoln who kind of tapped out of the whole thing right before the Civil War, the one who Andrew Jackson referred to him and the man he lived with as “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy”. He’s generally regarded as our worst president, Buchanan that is. So, let’s not rush to name any LGBT centers after him. 

Fast forward to last month, when 37-year old, and sadly taken, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg threw his hat into the ring of Democratic contenders to take on Trump. On paper Buttigieg has it all — a degree from Harvard, he’s a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran, a last name school children will ruthlessly mock for a generation. But will it ultimately be Buttigieg? Probably not. It’s a crowded field. And his last name is just. . .not what we need right now. But it’s interesting to me that his candidacy isn’t bigger news. Maybe the whole ‘the first openly gay person to. . .’ just isn’t that big of a deal anymore? 

And while I think most of us agree that it won’t be Buttigieg, it seems generally agreed that one day we will have a gay president. An informal poll on my facebook page saw that a majority of folks out there, almost four out of five, believe that one day we will have one of ours sitting in the Oval Office. 

Two things sort of point to this inevitability. First, let’s look to Colorado. That state, one I would consider by no means reliably blue in its political make-up, elected their first openly gay governor, Jared Polis. I’m guessing if you asked Coloradans just ten years ago if that were possible in their state, the majority would have said no. Asked then if they would like Polis to be governor, I’m sure the majority would have asked if there was anyone else available. But besides Polis, there’s Oregon’s Kate Brown and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both winning state-state-wide elections recently. I mean, it will take a while for say, Mississippi, to elect a LGBT politician, but when have we ever held our breath for states like that to do the right thing anyway?

Beyond what Colorado has shown us, it seems that liberal ideas over time just ultimately win out. And it’s not just that they win, people come around on them, from seemingly very little support to outright majorities in the span of a generation. Two of these — marijuana, and gay marriage — seem to be the best examples here. Then you have non-political, just general queer visibility in America; queer entertainment like Drag Race is now practically mainstream. Buttigieg himself remarked on this trend. Telling reporters at one of his Washington events that “when I came out, Mike Pence was the governor of Indiana, when I joined the military, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was the law of the land, and when it first crossed my mind that I might run for office someday, I believed that coming out would be a career death sentence.” Coming out certainly hasn’t been a death sentence for him. But, it some ways, it wasn’t the headline grabber it once was either. 

Americans can move surprisingly fast on social issues, especially it seems on LGBT issues. And if we carry on at this rate, a gay man in the White House is not just a question to kick around on social media, but an inevitability for sure. 

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Is it Anti-gay to Speculate about a Politician’s Sexuality?

In 2004, LGBT activist and journalist Mike Rogers posted a story on his website—Blog ACTIVE—suggesting that Edward Schrock, a Republican congressman representing Virginia’s second district, solicited sex with other men through a phone service. For years, Schrock had advocated a variety of anti-gay policies. Not only did he oppose same-sex marriage, but he objected to LGBT people serving in the military. Schrock never denied the allegations Rogers made, and not long after the story came out, Schrock announced that he would end his campaign for a third term in Congress.

Rogers started his blog in 2004 at a time when Republicans had added anti-gay marriage initiatives to ballots in 11 states. He claimed that some of the Republican operatives pushing these initiatives were themselves gay and made it his mission to expose them. 

“Many closeted homosexual men were at night going out to gay bars, getting laid, having sex, and then by day running some of the most homophobic political campaigns,” he told The Blade. Rogers asserts the right to privacy ends “when you’re oppressing the very group that you’re a member of.”

In recent years, Rogers’ blog has been largely inactive. But the concept of outing has made its way back into the national political conversation. In September 2018, comedian Bill Maher alleged Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is gay while criticizing the congressman for his defense of Brett Kavanaugh. Likewise, on National Coming Out Day in October, television host Chelsea Handler suggested Graham is gay in a Tweet. Both Handler and Maher faced backlash from the right and the left for their comments. Many on the left disapproved of the statements because they took them as a suggestion that being gay is somehow funny or shameful. Despite the pushback, others have made similar comments about Graham in the following months. 

Shortly after Handler tweeted in October, Graham addressed the years-old rumors and said he is not gay. But regardless of the senator’s sexual orientation, the issue has raised the question of whether it’s unethical—or even homophobic—to speculate about a politician’s sexuality, particularly while criticizing them.

Rogers would maintain that it isn’t. But his approach remains controversial, and not all agree with it. 

Jerri Ann Henry, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, opposes outing in all circumstances. 

“I’ll tell you first and foremost with no hesitation that I think outing is something that is terrible and that we should refrain from doing,” she said. She said coming out is a personal decision and a personal experience. “There’s always factors involved that we on the outside may not know.”

In respect to Handler’s recent Tweet about Graham, Henry worries that outing is re-emerging as a political tactic. “When we start using this as a political tool, it takes away from the beauty of somebody celebrating their sexuality and coming out, even though there is sometimes legitimate difficulty with that and legitimate strife,” she told the Blade. She sees speculating about or revealing an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity as nothing more than a “form of bullying.”

The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people, largely echoed Henry’s stance on the issue. “It is absolutely never okay to ‘out’ someone without their permission, as folks’ sexual orientation and gender identity can be a deeply personal part of their narrative,” Trevor Project Senior Trainer Joie DeRitis told the Blade. “We know that being ‘outed’ can have a profound negative impact on folks’ mental health, and their physical and emotional safety.”

Jim Kolbe, a former U.S. congressman from Arizona, holds a position somewhere between the stances of Rogers and Henry. Kolbe came out as gay publicly in 1996 after The Advocate threatened to reveal his sexual orientation in an article due to his support for the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. The bill, signed into law by President Bill Clinton after passing the House and Senate with a veto-proof majority, defined marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Kolbe was “not happy” when he learned The Advocate was planning to out him, but in retrospect, “it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he told the Blade this week. That doesn’t change the problems with the practice of outing, he says. “I think that individuals have to make the decision themselves when they want to.” He said an exception can be made if a certain politician or person in power is actively pushing virulently anti-LGBT policies and consistently speaking out against the LGBT community. He doesn’t believe his 1996 vote in favor of DOMA put him in this category, though. “People can have different views on gay marriage and be gay,” he said.

Outing as a political tactic and as a general practice remain controversial. Most agree that revealing the sexual orientation of an individual who has done no harm to the LGBT community is unethical. In some cases, outing can even subject LGBT people to physical danger. More than 70 countries criminalize same-sex relationships, and a few of those nations retain the death penalty for homosexual acts. In these areas, outing can send its victims to prison or a far worse fate. As recently as November 2018, the government of Tanzania launched an anti-gay crackdown and asked residents to report anyone they knew to be gay to a hotline. In the United States and other countries where same-sex marriage is legal, outing can have other consequences. For young people, in particular, it can affect family relationships and place already vulnerable individuals in further danger. Roughly 40 percent of the 1.6 million homeless young people in the U.S. identify as LGBT, according to various studies. Many of these kids were forced out of their homes because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Some others likely left after experiencing hate and abuse from their parents or other family members. 

But the question becomes more complicated when the discussion centers on powerful politicians who have pushed anti-gay agendas. In those circumstances, “the intent behind it is a real sense of betrayal or anger,” former National News Media Director at GLAAD Cathy Renna told the Blade. 

What is clear is that the community hasn’t made up its mind on the issue of outing and likely won’t reach a uniform agreement—at least not anytime soon.

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